Moscow is proposing a diametrically opposed vision to Western sanctions, threats and economic war, one that is drawing it ever closer to Tehran

Russia is meticulously advancing Eurasian chessboard moves that should be observed in conjunction, as Moscow proposes to the Global South an approach diametrically opposed to Western sanctions, threats and economic war. Here are three recent examples.

Ten days ago, via a document officially approved by the United Nations, the Russian Foreign Ministry advanced a new concept of collective security for the Persian Gulf.

Moscow stresses that “practical work on launching the process of creating a security system in the Persian Gulf” should start with “bilateral and multilateral consultations between interested parties, including countries both within the region and outside of it,” as well as organizations such as the UN Security Council, League of Arab States, Organization of Islamic Cooperation and Gulf Cooperation Council.

The next step should be an international conference on security and cooperation in the Persian Gulf, followed by the establishment of a dedicated organization – certainly not something resembling the incompetent Arab League.

The Russian initiative should be interpreted as a sort of counterpart of, and mostly a complement to, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, which is finally blossoming as a security, economic and political body. The inevitable conclusion is that major SCO stakeholders – Russia, China, India, Pakistan and, in the near future, Iran and Turkey – will be major influencers on regional stability.

The Pentagon will not be amused.

Drill, baby, drill

When the commander of the Iranian Navy, Hossein Khanzadi, recently visited St Petersburg for the celebration of Russia’s Navy Day, the General Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces and the Russian Defense Ministry signed an unprecedented memorandum of understanding.

Khanzadi was keen to stress the memorandum “may be considered a turning point in relations of Tehran and Moscow along the defense trajectory.”

A direct upshot is that Moscow and Tehran, before March 2020, will enact a joint naval exercise in – of all places – the Strait of Hormuz. As Khanzadi told the IRNA news agency:

“The exercise may be held in the northern part of the Indian Ocean, which flows into the Gulf of Oman, the Strait of Hormuz and also the Persian Gulf.”

The US Navy, which plans an “international coalition” to ensure “freedom of navigation” in the Strait of Hormuz – something Iran has always historically guaranteed – won’t be amused. Neither will Britain, which is pushing for a European-led coalition even as Brexit looms.

Khanzadi also noted that Tehran and Moscow are deeply involved in how to strengthen defense cooperation in the Caspian Sea. Joint drills already took place in the Caspian in the past, but never in the Persian Gulf.

Exercise together

Russia’s Eastern Military District will be part of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ (ASEAN) anti-terrorist exercise in Thailand and China early next month. According to the Eastern Military District, the training is part of “preparations for a practical phase of an ASEAN anti-terrorist exercise in China.” This means, among other things, that Russian troops will be using Chinese military hardware.

Exercises include joint tactical groups attempting to free hostages from inside official buildings; search for and disposal of explosives; and indoor and outdoor radiation, chemical and biological reconnaissance.

This should be interpreted as a direct interaction between SCO practices and ASEAN, complementing the deepening trade interaction between the Eurasia Economic Union and ASEAN.

These three developments illustrate how Russia is involved in a large spectrum from the Caspian Sea and the Persian Gulf to Southeast Asia.

But the key element remains the Russia-Iran alliance, which must be interpreted as a key node of the massive, 21st century Eurasia integration project.

What Russian National Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev said at the recent, historic trilateral alongside White House national security adviser John Bolton and Israeli National Security Council Adviser Meir Ben-Shabbat in Jerusalem should be unmistakable:

“Iran has always been and remains our ally and partner, with which we are consistently developing relations both on a bilateral basis and within multilateral formats.”

This lays to rest endless, baseless speculation that Moscow is “betraying” Tehran on multiple fronts, from the all-out economic war unleashed by the Donald Trump administration to the resolution of the Syrian tragedy.

To Nur-Sultan

And that leads to the continuation of the Astana process on Syria. Moscow, Tehran and Ankara will hold a new trilateral in Nur-Sultan, the Kazakh capital, possibly on the hugely significant date of September 11, according to diplomatic sources.

What’s really important about this new phase of the Astana process, though, is the establishment of the Syrian Constitutional Committee. This had been agreed way back in January 2018 in Sochi: a committee – including representatives of the government, opposition and civil society – capable of working out Syria’s new constitution, with each group holding one-third of the seats.

The only possible viable solution to the tragedy that is Syria’s nasty, rolling proxy war will be found by Russia, Iran and Turkey. That includes the Russia-Iran alliance. And it includes and expands Russia’s vision of Persian Gulf security, while hinting at an expanded SCO in Southwest Asia, acting as a pan-Asian peacemaking mechanism and serious counterpart to NATO.

DAMASCUS, (ST)- Pakistan’s Ambassador in Damascus Rashed Kamal has stressed that his country has supported a draft resolution recently adopted by the UN Human Rights Council condemning the Israeli occupation’s aggressive practices in the occupied Syrian Golan and called for implementing the UN resolutions on this issue.

In a press conference held at the Pakistani Embassy in Damascus, the ambadssador said his country seek proposing initiatives to solve the Kashmir conflict between Pakistan and India through dialogue and peaceful means.

He added that war doesn’t serve the interets of the peoples of the two countries, urging the international community to move as to prevent escalation which may affect other parts of the world.

Kamal reaffirmed the need to implement UN resolutions regarding Kashmir, pointing out that his country supports just causes and calls for resolving them peacefully.

During a reception held in Damascus on Sunday marking Pakistan’s 79th National Day, Kamal said in a speech that Syria and Pakistan stand in the face of terrorism, congratulating the Syrian people, army and leadership on the victories achieved everyday on terrorism.

He affirmed his country’s support to solving all the international problems through dialogue and peaceful means, and its adherence to the principles and the goals of the UN and the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC).

On his part, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affaris and Expatriates Fayssal Mikdad stressed the deep-rooted Syrian-Pakistani relations and cooperation in different domains.

He hailed Pakistan’s support for Arab struggle to liberate Palestine and ending the foreign hegemony and arrogance, appreciating cooperation between the two countries at the international forums.

Heated argument took place between a Hezbollah MP, Ihab Hamade, and Speaker of Saudi Shura Council, Abdullah Al Sheikh, earlier this week at the 14th Parliamentary Union of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation Member States (PUIC) in the Moroccan capital, Rabat.

Ihab Hamade, member of Hezbollah’s Loyalty to Resistance parliamentary bloc, was representing Lebanon, along with other MP, at the conference. The two Lebanese MPs confronted Saudi and UAE attempts to make changes on the final statement of the conference, Lebanese newspaper, Al-Akhbar reported.

The UAE demanded that the final statement “condemn the Iranian occupation” of 3 disputed islands, while Saudi demanded that the statement condemn “Iranian interference in Syria and Arab World affairs,” according the daily.

Al-Akhbar added meanwhile, that both Saudi and UAE demanded that the final statement cancel the paragraph that calls for preserving the nuclear deal between Iran and world powers, as well as the paragraph that condemns US sanctions against the Islamic Republic.

According to the daily all the Saudi and UAE demands were not met, adding that Hezbollah MP Hamade voiced the Lebanese delegation’s opposition to such demands.

The discussion then devolved into heated argument when Speaker of Saudi Shura Council Abdullah Al Sheikh t addressed Hamade as saying: “Are you Lebanon’s representative or Iran’s?”

The Saudi speaker’s question prompted Hamade to respond as saying: “Why are you here? You have no elected parliament at your county. You are the imported one, while we are real Arabs who preserved the dignity of Muslims and Arabs.”

The Lebanese delegation then walked out of the session, Al-Akhbar reported.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said the Islamic Republic is prepared to join hands with other Muslim countries and help defend the holy city of al-Quds against US-‘Israeli’ plots with no strings attached.

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“…The Islamic Republic of Iran stands ready to cooperate with each one of the Muslim countries to defend the holy Quds without any reservation or pre-condition,” Rouhani said on Wednesday, addressing an urgent summit in Istanbul on Washington’s contentious declaration on occupied al-Quds.

Representatives from 57 OIC [The Organization of Islamic Cooperation] members are attending the summit, which is meant to coordinate a response to a US decision to recognize al-Quds as the Zionist entity’s “capital.”

Rouhani also said attempts by certain regional countries to normalize ties with the apartheid ‘Israeli’ regime prompted US President Donald Trump to take the decision.
“I believe that other than any other reason, the attempts of some countries to establish relations and even consultation and coordination with the Zionist regime have incited such a decision”.

Instead of countering the threats of the Zionists, some countries in our region are aligned with the US and Zionists to prescribe the fate of Palestine-If such prescriptions are taken, the Zionists would permanently dominate the Palestinians, Rouhani stressed.

Away from the political alignment in the axes of the confrontation in the region and the world, it is possible to stop in front of what has happened in Riyadh summit with respect to characterization and analysis to discover the new things which were given by the conference held in Riyadh under the title of US-Islamic-Arab partnership, and to discover the extent of the conformity of the announced goals with what is revealed by the positions of those who hold this assembled festival, and then estimating what is wanted by the Saudi and the American depending on the main answers of the main questions.

No one in the light of the positions known by the parties and the expected goals of the conference, along with the wars which were ignited in the region can expect that the Palestinian cause and the ways of its solving be a central issue of the Arabs and the Muslims in the meeting with the country which forms the first source of funding, weapons, and the diplomatic protection to Israel, as it is not possible to expect that the condemnation of Iran and Hezbollah will not be one of the most prominent subjects of that conference, due to sole reasons that belong to both the American and the Saudi sponsors and for many other reasons between them.

What is new is the move from condemning Iran as a country that is being beheld the responsibility of sponsoring local parties in the Gulf countries, and considering it an interference in the internal affairs of these countries, as well as the accusation of Hezbollah as Iran’s ally which is responsible for the main part of this task on its behalf, and the characterization of that with terrorism as an expression of the political negotiating escalation to a new stage in which the title of the war on terrorism becomes dedicated to Iran as a main goal and ISIS as a secondary goal, and where Hezbollah and Hamas Movement become equal to ISIS, with the exclusion of Al Nusra front and ISIS from the list which their mentioning is not possible to be inadvertent in such a discourse of each the Saudi King and the US President.

According to the new discourses, the approach is no longer carried by considering the war on ISIS a priority as stated in the inaugural speech of the US President, but the objection of the expansion of the influence of each of Iran and Hezbollah under the slogan of this war, and the convergence with Israel is to stop these two influences separated or assembled. So every war on ISIS that does not coincide with a war on the Iranian influence not only on Hezbollah, but on the resistance movements is a wrong war, this is exactly the Israeli concept.

The Palestinian cause and the sectarian attraction are no longer considered the crucial elements in feeding the terrorism in the incubating background, moreover, to consider those who are concerned of confronting or solving the Palestinian cause or ending the secretion strife are no longer accompanying conditions to measure the seriousness in the war on terrorism, while getting rid of the Palestinian cause as a burden that delays the alliance with Israel and igniting the wars and the sectarian strife as a source of mobilization against Iran and Hezbollah have become required conditions in the concept of the new war.

Instead of strengthening the power for a negotiating situation with Iran in order to prevent the strife, and to get rid of the incubating background of ISIS and Al-Qaeda by claiming the defense of a doctrine against doctrine, the words of the Saudi Crown Crown Prince become understood about linking the conflict with Iran with the issue of the emergence of Imam Mahdi as a war with the doctrine which tries to smash its followers in Al Qatif and Al Awamiyya even if Al-Qaeda and ISIS become militias of the regime against some of its people.

Does this mean that the American want a war on Iran? Surely, he does not want it, but he felt happy because the Gulf is preoccupied with it.

The startled Gulf is the milking cow which Donald Trump talked about in his electoral campaign; he has milked it with five billion dollars that will lead to the Kingdom’s bankruptcy. In the Gulf which is alert to sectarianism and the danger of the imminent strife, Washington’s negotiation gets intensified with Iran, Riyadh is alienated away from the engagement arenas with Tehran as Syria and Iraq, just be sufficient with welcoming the Saudi proposal about forming a reserve force to intervene in them, supported with thanking.

The bankruptcy of Saudi Arabia does not bother Washington, the promised five hundred billion dollars for ten years equals medially fifty billion dollars annually, which means the increase of the budget figures in 2017 from 236 to 286 billion dollars, and raising the deficit from 53 to 103 billion dollars which means from 23% to 32 % and raising the debt from 83 billion dollars to 133 billion dollars, and gradually by adding annually to make it up to 800 billion dollars by the end of the ten years, which is equivalent to 100 % of the total expected national product then this means the bankruptcy.

There is a way to provide the annual amount of fifty billion dollars for the transactions of Salman-Trump that is related to the intervention in the oil market, but the problem is the relation between the quantity of production and price. The increase of three million barrels per day to the Saudi production over the current ten million means the drop of the barrel price to fifty dollars and maybe less. The value of the additional three billions covers the amount of the required fifty billion at the price of fifty dollars per barrel, but the revenue of the ten million dollars becomes less than fifty billion dollars of the estimated current price which means seventy dollars per barrel, so the seeking to raise the price to hundred dollars per barrel requires to reduce the quantity to six and a half million barrels per day. Therefore the million and a half barrels becomes a sufficient source of income to provide the fifty billion dollars annually, but the value of the remaining five millions becomes less than fifty billion dollars annually comparing with what is estimated in the current year.

Some Saudis suggested the discount of the Saudi annuity of the frozen deposits in America by the Americans, but the US response was the deposits were frozen under judiciary decision and can be considered a guarantee for payment only.

The Saudi bankruptcy, drowning in strife and the civil war, raising the level of tension with Iran, and leaving Riyadh to Israel finally for a functional mission related to the Israeli concern from the Syrian variables are US goals that coincide with getting all the money to revive the stagnant US economy, and selling the plants which their US efficiency has ended as the US weapons which do not bother Israel, so what the neo-conservatives said about Saudi Arabia as a prize of satisfaction for their wars in Asia is a continuous ceiling for the coming years.